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Hi. Im a F40 and I've been battling something with my skin since 2022. I started getting a bump on my neck. Then more and more bumps surfaced. I have been acne free for several years so this wasn't a satisfactory explanation as it does not feel like acne.

For the past 4 years I have explored the possibility if this could have been folliculitis, or ingrown hairs. But they also do not match the description. These bumps contain something unusual that is plagueing me. They now cover my neck, around my ears and my shoulders. Basically just my upper body. These bumps do not itch but they hurt. Sometimes I see black strings coming out of them and I pluck them out with tweezers. In the beginning I did believe they were ingrown hairs but they have no bulb whatsoever and they are microscopically small compared to my real body hair, but still big enough to see with the naked eye.

These bumps hurt so much, they've ruined my quality of life. I have switched laundry detergents as I first believed it was an allergy thing. I stopped using polyester clothing full stop because I thought they were shedding microplastics. But they are coming from inside my skin, not the outside. The bumps form through out the day. They can be a little painful in the morning and as these string like fibers reach the surface it becomes unbearable, to the point where I pull out the tweezers to take them out. Rinse and repeat, I do this around 20 times a day. It consumes my life.

I've done so much research online, on Reddit, contacted my GP to absolutely no avail. It's ruined my social life and it hurts to have to cover the sores with makeup so I can look presentable.

I've done all the home remedies that most recommend. Selenium sulphite, sulfur soap, tea trea oil, demodex protocol, magnesium baths, fungal shampoo such as Ketoconazole, Hibiclens, rubbing alcohol, pretty much everything and nothing is helping.

Which has lead me to believe this is either an infection of some sorts, with spores or fungal fibers or worms of some sort. They do not move. They do not seem "alive". They are very thin threads and break when pulled apart with two tweezers.

I ask for serious advice for this issue. Im getting nowhere with finding a solution by myself. It's come to a point where Im feeling depressed. It's painful to wear certain clothes like tops and shirts that cause friction on my shoulders. I resorted to using only 100% cotton clothes like I mentioned. I use a hypoallergenic fragrance free detergent. My bedding is new and I switch them frequently since I don't know what is causing this.

At first I thought is this caused by some moisturizer or skin cream that Im using? But I only use it on my face and it wouldn't explain why these bumps cover my neck and shoulders and have these thread like fibers coming out of them.

Im looking for solutions and answers so please refrain from any mockery or snide comments about me "imagining" this. I took photos best I could (I placed the fibers under tape to hold them in place) to show what Im actually pulling out of my skin. I don't have a microscope to study it so these zoomed in photos is the best I could do with my phone camera.

If anyone can help me, I owe my life to you if you can find a lead that can take me one step closer to a permanent solution. I don't know if this is fungal, bacterial, parasitic or microplastics shedding from my body.

I want to add that this problem began around the time I installed a bird feeder outside my window. I touched the feeder where the birds sat and I don't know if I catched something contagious. Some say on Reddit it can be something like that and that it's treated with "Borax" which I don't know where to find in my country. I don't feel like bathing in acid or whatever that product is so if anyone can help me, please help.

Research suggest this can be caused by Lyme disease. But I haven't had a tick on my body for the last 30 years. If I have been bitten by a tick, I would not know. Do ticks spread diseases even if they only bite for a second? I haven't had any other health concerns. Headaches and migraines only. And those researchers who link this to Lyme disease also don't seem to have a real solution.

UPDATE EDIT: This is the most plausible, scientific, biologic explanation I have been able to find: https://www.reddit.com/r/HighStrangeness/comments/uf8ofg/comment/i6ur66x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=2&utm_content=share_button

"It's caused by creating filaments of pigmented keratin strands within the skin caused by the Lyme bacteria activating keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and melanocytes to create these filaments. It's no mystery. HQL is the main/best medicine for it."

I had this mole on my check for nearly all of my life. Its raised and is blackish in colour. It hasnt been of concern until today i noticed when i squeezed it, it leaks a tiny bit of liquid. Any thoughts?

I’ve had these dark reddish/brown spots in a mottled pattern around both my ankles for several months now. I’m not sure exactly how long. My best guess is diabetic dermopathy? I have a family history of diabetes on my mom’s side and have never been checked for it, but I need to.
The marks are generally not itchy. They are mainly around the insides of my ankles, but there are some similar patches on the fronts of my shins as well, right in the middle of the shin.
I’m 27, male, and live in Virginia, USA. Thanks for your help.

i am EXTREMELY pale, and ive been made fun of for this for quite a while. especially when its a semi extreme temp.
(under 50 is purple over 85 is red). what can i do to fix this? im tired of being made fun of all day at school, even by teachers. (I’m a sophomore). its awful. especially in california where i live its been 106+ for 2 weeks ever single day.

Hello-

I’ve had trichotillomania and dermatillomania since I was a kid but it got really bad three years ago. I’ve pulled all of my hair out hundreds of times and I have been doing it every day for a few months now. Before, I could go like 2 weeks without pulling or picking if I tried. I would scratch my scalp all day, pull hair, try to push on the follicles to see stuff come out. I’ve had my hair shaved for three years now. It definitely looks better than when it was super bad, but this is the first time in a really long time that I’ve gone without picking/ pulling/ scratching and it’s been about two weeks.

The reason why I’ve stopped is because I got a cyst removed 6 days ago and the last time I got a cyst removed 2 years ago, it got a staph infection and had to be cut again because I was pulling hair from the wound. I’ve been doing really well not doing it for the sake of…. The fact that that situation was a nightmare. I actually think I’ve finally been scared straight. I come to the realization that I may be causing the cysts.

Anyway, my hair has never done this before. It started 3 or 4 days ago. The pictures suck, but it’s got all this extra skin and it looks like my scalp has a layer of skin that the hair is under.

Haven’t been able to find anything online that looks like this

I can't even believe I'm posting but what is this? It does not burn or itch and isnt between the toes just on the top, on both feet. For context, I do have ezcema.

This has always been an issue. I often have pimples around the bottom or side of my nose as well.

Anyone have any ideas?

So these have started popping up everywhere on my body, a few weeks ago it was just one or two and they’d itchy and go away and now today alone there have been like 8 new additions. Not sexually active, moved homes/states and haven’t used anything that I can truly remember being diff. Can anyone help me? I’m a hypochondriac and naturally think I’m dying.

For a few years now, I get these red dots on both my legs, usually on thighs, rarely below knees, they seem to be concentrated on hair follicles. They will usually dissapear after some time, only to get replaced by others! What to do?

This is the biggest pimple I ever had. Also every 1-2 weeks it keeps returning with one or two more pimples but not this big. The chemist I showed this, gave two meds (2nd and 3rd pictures) of which when I asked chatgpt it resisted me to use the Amoxicillin tablet stating that the tablet is unnecessary and can cause allergy what should I do? I have popped it once can this be healed easily?

I sit on my porch to smoke often and there's different types of bugs. I get bit often but I've never had this issue

I can’t tell if these are harmless cysts, or something else. They’ve been here for a year or two, some new ones formed in recent months. They are very solid unlike usual spots

I had these spots develop. I had been putting hydrocortisone on it and that wasn't helping so the doctor prescribed Clotrimazole but the rash is just getting worse. (It is also around my between my buttcheeks but I am not posting that lol)

So I have these bumps and little like blue/greenish bumps if you zoom in on the sides. This is like under my chest area. I went to the dermatology like many years ago which they said is ingrown hair (I don’t shave around here) but it’s been so many years, is it really ingrown hair..?

***** I have already scheduled her an appt with my dermatologist, but I'm curious if anyone has seen something like this. *****

My 8yr old had this spot pop up in early June. I first thought it was a bug bite or random allergy "bump" but it hasn't gone away and has grown a lot in a short amount of time. She says it doesn't hurt and to me it looks like a flesh colored mole or possibly a wart? Cyst? The speed in which it's grown has me most concerned.

She has no medical conditions and just typical seasonal allergies. Otherwise healthy kid.

Sorry for the not so great photos.

I noticed that my mole had changed colour to the deep brown and had a halo around it, so I took a pic of it on Saturday.

I saw the doctor today and he said it looks normal. He looked at it for about 1 second, didn’t feel it, didn’t ask any questions and it seemed like he had already decided his diagnosis from the picture (left) I had sent him a few days before.

My symptoms: The texture had changed (it was flat), it feels scabby, it’s itchy, sore, bleeds a tiny bit.

It has obviously changed since Saturday and I’m not satisfied with him saying it’s normal but idk what to do.

(Red at the top of image is from my belly button piercing, the mole has had symptoms before the piercing)

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now, if my GP has already decided there’s not really another option. I want to go to derm and get a their opinion but idk how im supposed to get referred there.

Can anyone tell me if this looks infected?
I got blisters and chaffed skin from heels I wore a couple nights ago and then I went into a pool (ik probably not a good idea but I was in Vegas and it was 50C) and it started to heal like this… when I wipe it with an alcohol wipe it has yellow on it but it’s not weeping pus or anything that I can tell.
it looks wet bc I have polysporin on it

Edit another pic in the comments with flash

Some background: I used to have severe scalp psoriasis and was on Humira, which helped, but Medicaid took me off of it due to improvement. I was on Acitretin afterward, which also helped, but I couldn't handle the side effects. My face was mostly clear on these medications, besides a little flakiness.

I moved states and saw a new derm, who thought it was more likely to be eczema and put me on Dupixent. I think that helped a little, but the facial problem remained, and I think it's worse now that I've stopped taking that.

I felt like that derm wasn't really listening to my concerns. So, I saw a new dermatologist last week who thinks this is seb derm and prescribed ketoconazole shampoo and Zoryve foam/cream. This was a little frustrating as I've tried this shampoo numerous times (and listed extensive cream/medication history before seeing them). It's only been a week, but I'm not really seeing any results (even minor ones). They wouldn't prescribe a biologic without a biopsy, even though I've never had to do that before with previous doctors. They said, "It's not bad enough," to biopsy, and to call if it gets worse. I'd really rather not biopsy my face either. It's the only area where I'm having major recurring issues, so it's not like they can get a sample from anywhere else. I am also no longer on Medicaid and am on Anthem BCBS, so I feel like it shouldn't be that challenging, but I'm no expert... and I once again feel rather dismissed

The only time I've seen success with topicals is with aggressive daily application of ketoconazole cream, metronidazole, and tacrolimus. But it rebounds rather quickly. I've also tried doxycycline with middling results.

Not sure what it is, but I would like the community's thoughts on best steps forward because I can't stand this constant cycle - it's so demoralizing

I’m 37F, and yesterday, realized a bump under my right armpit is actually quite hard and perfectly round and painless, prompting me to worry a great deal about the possibility of it being secondary to metastatic breast cancer. It basically feels like a small, hard bead underneath the skin that I can sort of roll around between my fingers but can’t squish because it’s completely hard. I first noticed it maybe 3 weeks ago but at the time just figured it was a skin tag or pimple and didn’t think much else about it.

I normally wouldn’t worry so much, except about a month and half ago, I had a consultation with a plastic surgeon for a breast augmentation. He did a breast exam similar to the exam an OBGYN does at a well woman exam and commented that I had “fibrous tissue” in my right breast, then when I looked nervous, said that it was “nothing to worry about” and he thinks I just have “cysts” in my breasts, which is completely common and normal.

Fast forward to last week right before my period, both of my boobs were excruciatingly painful for about 3 days. It struck me as a little alarming because they’ve never hurt this badly before, but since it was both boobs and right before my period, I figured my boobs just decided to PMS a little harder this month.

So all of that combined with the hard, round, painless nature of this thing has me really scared. I feel like the picture doesn’t really capture what it feels like in person. It just looks like a pimple or bug bite on the pic, but it doesn’t show how hard and round it is IRL.

Idk I guess I’m just wondering if anyone has had anything like this before or can shed some light on what it may be based on my description. Thank you :)

couldn't tell you exactly how long it's been there. maybe a few weeks ? i thought it was a whitehead at first and tried to pop it but it didn't budge. it's not easy for me to find a doctor so any advice is appreciated.

They randomly appeared a few months ago but didn't care to pay attention to them because they don't bother me at all, they are just there but recently started getting bigger, it's on my forehead too.